The present invention relates to vehicle type identification device.
In recent years, technology has been disclosed for identifying a type of a vehicle (hereinafter also referred to as “vehicle type”) shown in a captured image. The type of the vehicle represents information indicating a result obtained by performing classification based on the size of the vehicle, for example, whether the vehicle is a large size vehicle or a small size vehicle, and represents information indicating the type of the vehicle, for example, whether the vehicle is a bus, a car, or a truck. Such technology includes technology for identifying a type of a vehicle shown in a captured image taken by a monocular camera, for example.
As the technology for identifying a type of a vehicle shown in a captured image taken by a monocular camera, there is disclosed technology using a result obtained by matching with a vehicle model (for example, see JP 2002-190023A), for example. In this technology, a vehicle region is extracted from a captured image, a vehicle model which is stored in advance is converted into an image obtained in the case where the image is taken in an imaging direction, and a vehicle type is identified based on a degree of overlap between the converted image and the vehicle region. As the vehicle model, there is prepared a three-dimensional shape model for each vehicle type.
In the case of using such technology, since a vehicle model which is stored in advance can be converted based on an imaging direction of a camera that is actually installed, restrictions on conditions for camera installation can be reduced.